This essay is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing first-person perspectives of former Mississippi governors. We asked them to write about their successes while in office and perhaps what they wished had gone a little differently during their tenure.

My campaign for governor in 2003 followed a 35-year career in Republican politics in Mississippi, across the South and nationally.

I started in Mississippi in 1968 as a 20-year-old field representative for Richard Nixon’s campaign in 30 central counties. It was during that campaign that I saw my first political poll. It showed only 6% of Mississippians identified as Republican. Nixon got 13% of the vote in our state, though it was not Democrat Hubert Humphrey who won the state. We defeated him, but independent George Wallace won it. To be a Republican in Mississippi in 1968, you had to be an optimist.

In 1970 I was appointed state director of the U.S. Census for Mississippi, which was a political patronage job. I was only 22 years old then and had some 2,700 employees.

Despite my age, we finished ahead of schedule and under budget. 

In 1972 I came back to the state Republican Party to direct the Nixon reelection campaign in Mississippi as well as coordinate the three GOP House races in the state. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott both won congressional seats left open by Democrats, registering major GOP breakthroughs in our state. 

That same year, Republican Gil Carmichael of Meridian ran a serious race against longtime U.S. Sen. Jim Eastland.

While 1972 began a strong GOP attack on the state’s one-party system, nearly all state, federal, county and municipal elected officials remained Democrats. Movement to a competitive two-party system would be evolutionary, requiring piece-by-piece progress over more than 20 years. For example, from the 1972 breakthrough by Cochran and Lott, no Mississippi legislative body elected a Republican majority until 2012.

Importantly, however, Thad in 1978 and Trent in 1988 were elected to the U.S. Senate, and Kirk Fordice won two terms as governor in 1991 and 1995.

After Ronnie Musgrove succeeded Fordice, I began to get encouragement to run for governor, which I did in the 2003 election.

My campaign was largely about policy and reforms of existing policies, such as tort reform. Musgrove’s administration had made a pass at tort reform, which was not considered effective.

Our reforms included a greater emphasis on workforce development and skills training in public education, especially at our community colleges.

I pledged to maintain a balanced budget, which the previous administration had not done. I said we would balance the budget without raising anybody’s taxes, which we did within two years.

Major emphasis was placed on economic development and job creation. I had always thought the public’s view was that the governor was the state’s chief economic development and job creation officer.

As noted earlier, the Democrats had majority control of both legislative chambers. The House never had a GOP majority while I was governor (2004-2012), and the Senate only had a GOP majority in 2011 because two senators elected as Democrats switched to the GOP that year.

Despite the divided government, my administration had good success with the Legislature. We never had a veto overridden, and both houses were very cooperative with my handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis and all its programs and redevelopments. Speaker Billy McCoy publicly and accurately said the governor had to be in charge of spending and programs paid for by the federal government, and he and the Legislature abided by that statement.

My administration worked with Congress and the Bush administration to amend federal disaster assistance programs and successfully filled gaps in the then existing major programs.

Mississippi was commended by federal inspectors general and others for the way we managed our programs funded by federal funds, which amounted to $24.5 billion.

I believe my administration will always be remembered first by how we handled our recovery and rebuilding after Katrina, which was at that time the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Tort reform was a major accomplishment that achieved very positive results after a tough fight in the Legislature. Another critical accomplishment was allowing casinos on the Coast to move onshore. I always congratulated Democratic Speaker McCoy, who opposed gaming but then allowed the onshoring bill to come to the floor for a vote. The bill passed, even though McCoy voted “no.”

We had great success in attracting high quality industries which generated high paying jobs. Per capita income increased 34%. Companies like Toyota, GE Aviation, PACCAR, Federal Express, Caterpillar, Winchester, Severstal, Airbus and others either came to the state or expanded here.

Disappointments included failure to get the Obama administration to deepen the ship channel to the Port of Gulfport; or to get Congress to allow us to buy the railroad and right of way just above Beach Boulevard in Harrison, Jackson and Hancock counties and relocate it north of I-10. The purchased right of way would have been replaced by a thoroughfare on the track bed at least 6-lanes wide with controlled access. The Coast has come back and greatly improved since Katrina, but these two projects would have made it far, far better. 

Haley Barbour served as Mississippi governor from 2004-2012. From 1993 to 1997, he served as chairman of the Republican National Committee, managing the 1994 Republican surge that led to GOP control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. A native of Yazoo City, Barbour still resides in his hometown with his wife, Marsha. They have two sons and seven grandchildren.

Editor’s note: Marsha and Haley Barbour donated to Mississippi Today in 2016. Donors do not in any way influence our newsroom’s editorial decisions. For more on that policy or to view a list of our donors, click here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Jan. 17, 1931

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, James Earl Jones moved to his grandparents’ farm in Michigan at age 5. 

He had a stutter so severe, he hardly spoke. An English teacher realized his gift for writing poetry and had him recite poetry in front of the class, overcoming his stuttering. 

At the University of Michigan, he was majoring in pre-med when he discovered drama. After training troops in the Korean War, he starred in “Othello” at the Ramsdell Theatre in Michigan. In 1967, he starred opposite actress Jane Alexander in “The Great White Hope,” loosely based on heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and society’s demand for a white boxer that would defeat Johnson. The play began at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., before moving to Broadway, where the play, Jones and Alexander all won Tonys. In the film adaptation, Jones won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. 

He went on to play Shakespeare on Broadway and win another Tony, three Emmys and an honorary Oscar prior to his 2024 death. The first celebrity guest on “Sesame Street,” he may be best known for providing the voice for Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies and for Mufasa in Disney’s “The Lion King.” 

He saw the two biggest challenges to society as health and sanity. “I won’t say racism,” he said. “I say sanity because racism is a form of insanity.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

A bill that phases out the state income tax, cuts the state grocery tax and raises sales taxes and gasoline taxes passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote on Thursday. 

House Bill 1 — authored by Republican Rep. Trey Lamar of Senatobia and other House leaders – passed 88-24 with only Democratic House members voting against it. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Nine House Democrats joined with the GOP majority to support the plan, and seven Democrats voted “present,” meaning they did not vote yes or no. 

“A lot of my Republicans were speaking as one as a caucus that this is important to them and to their constituents,” House Speaker Jason White told reporters after the bill passed. “I think it’s a good, strong vote for us and it’ll be a strong position for me as speaker to advocate for its passage and advancement on the other (Senate) end of the building.” 

The plan would over time cut about $1.1 billion from the state’s current $7 billion general fund money. Proponents say economic growth would cover the loss and not result in major cuts to government services or spending. Critics believe lawmakers should be cautious with long-term tax cuts and restructuring in the middle of an unstable economy, or oppose a shift to more “regressive” taxation that could hit lower income people harder. 

The legislation would reduce the income tax rate from 4% to 3% next year. Then, it would reduce the rate by .3% each additional year until the tax is eliminated in 10 years. 

The plan would add a 1.5% sales tax for local governments, unless they opt out, increasing the state’s net sales tax from 7% to 8.5%.

The plan would over a decade reduce the tax on unprepared food from 7% to 2.5%, but the new local sales tax would still be levied on food, for a net 4% grocery tax once fully enacted.

The sales taxes collected by counties would go toward local road maintenance.

Some Democratic members, including House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III of Natchez, raised concerns that the measure does not contain enough safeguards to ensure that state government funds all of its needs and that the sales tax hike would negatively impact poorer Mississippians. 

“This is putting a burden on working people,” Johnson told Mississippi Today. 

Democratic Rep. Omeria Scott of Laurel introduced an amendment to immediately cut the grocery tax, instead of gradually reducing it over time, but Republican members defeated the amendment. 

The legislation also adds a new 5% tax on gasoline sales, which would go toward the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s budget for road and bridge infrastructure. 

The tax is expected to generate $400 million a year. Currently, Mississippi has an 18.4 cents-a-gallon flat tax on gasoline — a flat rate no matter the cost of a gallon. Transportation leaders have for years said they need an indexed tax that would rise with the cost of gasoline in order to generate enough money to keep up road maintenance.

Using current average gasoline price in Mississippi of $2.62 a gallon, the proposed new tax would cost consumers 13 more cents a gallon.

Willie Simmons, a Democrat who is the central district transportation commissioner, and Brad White, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, in a joint statement thanked House leadership for having substantive discussions about infrastructure funding, though they didn’t specifically endorse the legislation. 

“HB1 accomplishes a significant net tax cut for the people of Mississippi while still taking strides to make our transportation dollars both reliable and adequate,” the two transportation leaders said.

Both White and Lamar have said they believe Reeves supports the tax cut plan, but the governor’s office has not responded to questions about his stance on the House’s legislation. 

Reeves in past years has opposed what he called “tax swaps,” tax cut proposals that sought to decrease the overall tax burden, yet raised another type of tax such as the latest House proposal. He’s also opposed past efforts to raise the gasoline tax. 

Reeves, in 2021 notably opposed an effort led by Lamar and former House Speaker Philip Gunn that sought to eliminate the income tax and cut the sales tax on groceries in half while increasing the sales tax on other items by 2.5 cents on the dollar. 

READ MORE: How soon we forget: Mississippi House push for record tax cuts revives fear of repeat budget crises

“I wouldn’t want to be a Republican that votes to increase taxes substantially for certain segments of the public,” Reeves said during a 2021 news conference. “… I personally support tax cuts, not tax swaps or tax transfers or tax increases … I don’t think we ought to sit here and pick and choose who to take money from. I think we ought to take less from everybody.”

Before Reeves can consider the proposal, though, it would have to pass the GOP-majority Senate which, in the past, has been more cautious with its tax cut plans and not agreed to totally abolish the income tax. In 2022 the chambers agreed and passed a large tax cut that is still being phased in.

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the Senate’s presiding officer, previously said he will push a plan this year that immediately lowers the state’s 7% sales tax on grocery items to 5% and trims the state’s 4% income tax down to 3% over the next four years, though no senator has yet introduced such a bill. 

Speaker White told reporters that he was willing to negotiate with Senate leaders on a tax cut package, but his ultimate goal is to send legislation to Reeves that would abolish the income tax. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.